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The Hudson's Bay Company released the first round of its 2012 Olympics replica wear Wednesday, which is also the wardrobe that Canadian participants will be sporting around the Athletes' Village in London. Before they started on the new line, The Bay's design team did a post-mortem and decided the Vancouver 2010 gear was such a success because it was built around iconic Canadian pieces (a parka, a lumberjack shirt, a henley). It appears they decided to take the same approach for the 2012 Summer Games. The National Post's style editor Nathalie Atkinson weighs in.

The Good

The red mittens are back! And so those 17 people in Lethbridge who didn't manage to snag a pair the first time around can rejoice.

Given the mercurial London weather, the simple waterproof red windbreaker with a hood will be every athlete's most essential piece next summer (and for the rest of us, a compact and useful packable piece with a hood is good for hiking, the cottage and summer travel). Ditto a simple red henley, albeit adorned with patches (more on which, later).

The colours are strong and simple: maple leaf red, northern white and black, along with a dark, deep evergreen. Ear-covering toques are on-trend (there's a bit of traditional Nordic motif about them in a band around the crown) and it would not be embarrassing to wear these this winter, even with the big "Canada" label shouting out from the forehead.

The otherwise "meh" all-caps font looks its best knit into the simple striped intarsia scarf. Perhaps the designers have been boning up on retro-prep and books such as Take Ivy, because it has a whiff of the collegiate and private school pride about it, like the varsity scarves trend of last year. It's still a bit overwrought with the decals and patches but nonetheless looks good for essentially being a wearable Canadian flag.

The Bad

First, let's talk about the heather grey crewneck sweatshirt (inspired by similar ones worn at the 1912 Stockholm Games). There were, admittedly, raglan sweats galore on many designer runways - but none with a loud, large maple leaf decal. There is keeping it simple, and then there is boring. The plainness of the huge decal with big Canada nameplate looks a lot like the many uninspired and inexpensive tourist sweats sold at every cluttered souvenir and airport shop. The low-rent font doesn't help: Yes, the blocky sans serif type will register well on television and from afar, but my flip alarm clock had the same rounded digital font, and that was in 1985.

Next. Embroidered beaver and elk faces! Heraldry! Merit badges!

The badges, patches and shields were chosen because heraldry tells the Canadian story of travel and of accomplishment. Conveniently, they're all the travel and accomplishment without any of the actual travel or accomplishment. However, I have begrudging props: This touch is a clever one because not only are the badges slapped all over the clothes, they're sold individually. Compact, and inexpensive, we predict they'll be the red mittens of London.

On its own, the black zip jacket with striped knit trim looks pretty good, even with all the patches. It's a modern take on the 1950s varsity track jacket that also recalls Ryan Gosling's satin version in Drive. The caveat: It's part of a suit, meant to be paired with matching "slim" bottoms that look a lot like leggings. Appropriate for athletes in the village who exercise for a living and have the body to match; less so for those who don't (i.e. everyone else).

The Also Pretty Bad

The jean jacket is a cause for concern, to the point where I half-suspect The Bay to be baiting us, just to generate buzz. But if I put my cynicism aside and assume this is the direction they plan to take to the Podium or even dressier pieces than that - yikes! I worry about the main event, i.e. the Fashion Olympics that are the pageantry of the opening ceremony's Parade of Nations. The designers call this mid-tone distressed denim "vintage wash" but there's more than a hint of Canada's shameful acid-washed past here.

And where there's acid-washed jeans, can the double-denim Canadian tuxedo be far behind?

natkinson@ nationalpost.com

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